Wednesday, July 09, 2003

More details of my time under the care of US Special Forces from another of the Forward Surgical Team. Captain Jeff Joyce was the anaesthetist who made sure I was off with the fairies while the surgeon did his work. He and his team did a great job of fixing me up.

Here's Jeff in full combat gear:

And here he is in civvies:

Jeff says:

"We took you back to the operating room a couple of times while waiting to get you out. Your spirits were high and you were an A1 chap.

"I spent a couple of nights with you in the grand recovery room with you. We actually had to change our mission as we don't normally take care of people longer than six hours. We usually ship them out within six hours but we had no transport out for two days.

"We took a pesh bed and brought it in so you wouldn't sleep on an army stretcher for two days. I thought given the circumstances it was best to keep you well anesthetized during your ordeal.

"I remember a funny moment your friend and I were looking for your medication and we came across the big water pipe you had purchased and we both laughed and said he'll have a hell of a time getting that on the special ops helicopter.

"We spent about 30 minutes in the back of the ambulance waiting for your ride, it was cold and I was a little concerned we had you out of it. I kept waking you up to see if you were all right. We wrapped you up in pesh blankets and put some ear plugs in for the ride."

Jeff has recounted the story of his whole time in Northern Iraq here. He talks about my accident on page three.

It's very emotional for me to read the story of what happened in the operating room and to see the pictures but it's cathartic too. It's all part of the process of making sense of and coming to terms with the accident.